Christian couple goes on the warpath against their gay restaurant owner neighbors as they fling a DEAD RAT on the diner, stick ‘All Lives Matter’ flags in their yard and tow customers’ trucks following years-long feud over BINS

• Conservative Christians have been caught on surveillance footage flinging a dead rat onto the porch of their neighboring gay couple’s business
• The owner’s William Waybourn and Craig Spaulding, both 76, have been a couple since 1973. The feud is with Mike and Melissa Washer
• At first arguments erupted over car parking spaces, early morning deliveries and the locations of trash dumpsters. Its claimed these escalated overtime 

Conservative Christians have been caught on surveillance footage flinging a dead rat onto the porch of their neighboring gay couple’s business, the Washington Post reported.

The incident, which took place in August last year, was the culmination of a long-running feud waged by Mike and Melinda Washer against a gay couple who own The Front Porch restaurant in The Plains, Virginia. 

The owner’s William Waybourn and Craig Spaulding, both 76, have been a couple since 1973.  

Mike, 54, and Melissa Washer, 53, also own their own business, ICS Financial, which sits directly next to the restaurant. 

In August 2022 The Front Porch’s general manager Tiffany Foster found a dead rodent in front of the restaurant.

Conservative Christians have been caught on surveillance footage flinging a dead rat onto the porch of their neighboring gay couple’s business

William Waybourn (pictured) and his husband Craig Spaulding have been a couple since 1973

When she checked the business’s surveillance footage she saw Mike Washer fling the rat into position, and then proceed to take pictures of it. 

The Washers claim they believe it was placed on their porch first by the couple or their employees and that they were merely returning it. 

The conservative couple – who posted a picture of themselves outside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 and have an ‘Only JESUS can save America’ sign on their back railing – have been in dispute with the gay couple since they moved to the small town in 2019. 

At first arguments erupted over car parking spaces, early morning deliveries and the locations of trash dumpsters.

However, Front Porch employees claim that things soon escalated and interactions became nastier. 

In one such interaction, during a parking dispute Mike Washer told employees that he had called a tow truck to remove one of The Front Porch’s customer’s cars from a parking spot he owned. 

When the employees ignored him they allege he said: ‘I like you, but the f*****ts you work for, I can’t stand.’ 

Mike told the Post he did not make the comment. 

Waybourn and Spaulding served the Washers no-trespassing orders on September 5 2021, in a dispute over the use of masks, they claim. 

‘We were completely blindsided by that,’ Melissa Washer told the Washington Post, ‘I don’t know. I felt criminal’ she explained. 

Mike Washer (pictured) was caught on surveillance footage flinging a dead rat in front of his neighbor’s business last August 

Mike, 54, and Melissa Washer, 53, also own their own business, ICS Financial, which sits directly next to the restaurant

Four days later the Washers retaliated with no-trespass orders of their own, meaning no-one associated with The Front Porch, including diners and vendors, could use the car parking spaces that they owned. 

‘If we can’t come into your restaurant anymore, why would we share our parking spaces, which is our property that we pay taxes on, with you and your patrons?’ Melissa told the Post.  

Waybourn and Spaulding believe the dispute intensified during the pandemic when they partially reopened in June 2020 and required customers to wear masks when not eating or drinking. 

Front Porch staff and others in The Plains say the Washers never wore masks at the restaurant and it led to conflicts. 

Melissa has posted anti-mask content on her Facebook page, the Post reported.   

Waybourn wrote an email to Mike on January 22 2021 saying: ‘This is not the first time that I (and others) have asked you to respect this requirement, as entering without a mask puts both our health permit and liquor license at significant risk.’

However, Mike soon reentered the restaurant again without a mask, Waybourn alleges. 

The couple therefore decided to ban the Washers from the premises. 

The Washers complained to the health department about the restaurant, but when an inspector conducted a review they found no problems. 

Locals expressed fears to the Post that the long-running dispute, including back and forth litigation as well as monopolizing in town resources such as the council, will drag the town under. 

William Waybourn and Craig Spaulding established The Front Porch restaurant in The Plains, Virginia in 2015 

Waybourn alleges that he fist banned The Washers from his business because they refused to adhere to mask policies in the pandemic 

A further dispute over business zoning led to a Board of Zoning Appeals hearing between the warring couples.

Mike told the Post he believes he is being discriminated against by the local authorities for being conservative. 

‘We, a conservative family, the Washers, are subjected to a set of rules that’s the by-the-book rules,’ he said. 

‘But if you’re conservative, you are subjected to the town council letting you have special-use permits that accommodate whatever they want. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing. It’s not right.’ he vented.

Waybourn and his husband have now put the Front Porch up for sale.

Source: Read Full Article